


Learning Curves

by itsallAvengers



Series: Love Bites [3]
Category: The Avengers (Marvel Movies), The Avengers (Marvel) - All Media Types
Genre: Alternate Universe - High School, Alternate Universe - No Powers, Alternate Universe - Supernatural Elements, Angst with a Happy Ending, Arguing, Discussions of Discrimination and General Dickheadery of Society toward Supernatural Beings, First Time, Fluff, Love Confessions, M/M, Miscommunication, Steve Rogers Feels, Steve Rogers Needs a Hug, They're Dumb and in love! There's feels EVERYWHERE!, Tony Stark Feels, Tony Stark Has A Heart, Tony Stark out there doing the MOST for his Unhuman Boyfriend, Vampires, Worldbuilding
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-11-07
Updated: 2019-11-07
Packaged: 2021-01-25 01:35:30
Rating: Mature
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 13,281
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/21348103
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/itsallAvengers/pseuds/itsallAvengers
Summary: It's Halloween! And who better to celebrate Halloween with than your amazingly cool and beautiful Vampire boyfriend?Except, as it turns out, Steve's not so fond of that idea. Or of Halloween as a whole, actually. Tony vows to try and change that, whilst failing to actually ask Steve aboutwhyhe dislikes it so much. This leads, inevitably, to problems.Tony still has a lot of learning to do about the life Steve lives. He'll get there eventually. Until then, though, there's going to be some bumps along the way.
Relationships: Steve Rogers/Tony Stark
Series: Love Bites [3]
Series URL: https://archiveofourown.org/series/1115427
Comments: 68
Kudos: 682





	Learning Curves

**Author's Note:**

> This was supposed to be posted on Halloween, so I mean the fact that it's only a week late is actually not bad for me.
> 
> Pretty sure this can be read as a standalone, although there may be some terminology that is confusing. But for a brief explanation: this is an AU where humans live amongst supernatural creatures like vampires, werewolves, demons etc, who call themselves Unhumans. They're not treated too great by the rest of the world, but despite this, Vampire Steve and plain ol' human tony still manage to find each other and cling on tight anyway. How very Stevetony of them

If there was one thing that was integral to Tony Stark’s character, it was that he loved Halloween.

It might have seemed a bit strange, considering his pretty sheltered background. He’d never really had the opportunity to go out trick or treating, nor had he ever been able to have an excuse to dress up and actually celebrate it with anyone else- but the excitement and vicarious pleasure he got from seeing _others_ participate had always been more than enough to satiate him every October. He’d spend hours looking through Pinterest at costume ideas, scrolling Instagram and watching everyone decorate their homes and faces with amazing art in celebration. Plus, even if he couldn’t go out or dress up, there really was nothing better than cosying up with your pet robot and a bowl of popcorn and sitting to watch scary films all night in the dark.

So yeah. Tony loved everything about Halloween.

Unfortunately, as the month of October began, he quickly realised that his boyfriend, one Steve Rogers, did not exactly share that sentiment.

He could admit, it had been a blow. Ever since managing to find a group of solid, real friends for the first time in his life, he’d been looking forward to being able to spend the different holidays with them, bonding and experiencing how it all felt when it was done with the people you loved around you. And considering the fact that all of those friends were actually Unhuman- Vampires, Werewolves, Demons and the like- he’d been _especially_ excited for Halloween. He’d figured that they would go absolutely crazy for that season. It was pretty much catered specifically for them, after all.

But Steve hadn’t seemed… well, he hadn’t been enthusiastic at all when Tony had first broached the subject with a smile and a little jig. He’d just shrugged indifferently and told him that none of them ever made plans for Halloween. That they didn’t celebrate it. And then before Tony could even respond to that, he’d changed the subject swiftly and moved along like it’d never happened. Then, when Tony tried again a few days later, Steve did the same thing. Said that he didn’t watch horror films because they were shit, and before Tony could argue that _hell no they were not shit,_ grabbed him by the waist and kissed him quiet.

It was definitely disappointing, Tony wasn’t going to lie. He’d been preparing his Halloween costume since the back-end of September in order to look cool for whatever celebrations that would ensue. Now, it seemed that Steve and the rest of their friends weren’t intending on even doing anything.

Of course, though, Tony was nothing if not tenacious. Often to the point of intolerability, actually, as his father liked to point out. But either way—Tony had decided that he wasn’t going to give up. He could get his friends into the Halloween spirit, for sure. All he had to do was introduce them to the fun.

And so began his mission.

“Steeeve,” he started one night, while laying across the other boy’s lap and chewing on a bowl of popcorn, “can we put a horror movie on?”

He watched as Steve’s gaze turned to him, face creasing into a look of mild disdain. “What’s wrong with this?” He responded with, throwing a pale hand over to the TV which was currently in the process of loading up the episode of Grey’s Anatomy. Steve was obsessed with that show. In fact, Tony was pretty sure Steve would trade his relationship with Tony for that show.

Tony huffed and sat up, his butt perched on Steve’s thighs as he turned his head and looked at the other boy. “Nothing _wrong_ with it,” he said softly, trailing his fingers around the edge of Steve’s collar. He felt Steve’s hand curl automatically around his waist. “Horror movies are just… y’know. Fun.”

“Surely by nature of them being ‘horror’ movies, they’re not fun.”

“You know what I mean.” Tony rolled his eyes and ducked his forehead into Steve’s neck, kissing him softly as he wrapped his arms around those wonderfully muscular shoulders underneath him. “It’s a great excuse to cuddle and make-out with each other. Gets the adrenaline pumping and all that.” He pulled back a fraction and looked at Steve hopefully. “I usually watch them with DUM-E, but he can’t fight off monsters or ghosts as well as you could, so I don’t feel quite so soothed.”

Steve’s smile ticked a little, and then he sighed. “I don’t wanna watch a horror movie, Tony,” he said with a note of finality in his voice, “you can put something else on if you want, but no horror.”

“But—”

“Please?” Steve looked at him earnestly, his blue eyes startlingly clear from where Tony was sat, a few short centimetres between them. “We can make out with each other while something else plays in the background.”

Well. Tony would take a compromise when he saw one, obviously. He agreed to Steve’s terms, and soon they were caught up in each other on the couch while something explodey and loud played in front of them. Unfortunately thanks to the presence of Steve’s mother in the house, it couldn’t get past anything other than kissing, but that was more than enough to make Tony happy. He forgot about the movies after less than a few minutes, too busy trying to work out all the spots Steve was ticklish in while also refusing to be dislodged from Steve’s lap when they boy reacted to his wandering hands. It didn’t last long, of course—Steve’s Vampiric superstrength made flipping Tony onto the couch and pinning him down pretty much no problem at all, and soon it was Steve doing the tickling, a grin on his face and a slight pink tinge to his otherwise pale cheeks. Tony couldn’t even be mad at him for the horror movie thing. Or the relentless tickling. He was just too damn pretty.

Of course though, when he got back home, the disappointment at having failed at the first hurdle became palpable. Steve hadn’t seemed interested at all. Even when Tony had tried to butter it up with kisses.

Back to the drawing board, then. It seemed Tony was just going to have to work a bit harder to get Steve into the Halloween spirit. He could do it though. Never let anyone say Tony backed down from a challenge. He’d just have to start slower, maybe. Play the long game. He had most of the month, after all. And he’d been with Steve long enough by that point to know how the guy ticked, more or less.

The next Tuesday, Tony found Steve waiting for him, as usual, by the front of the school. He was alone, his foot scuffing the ground and his hands stuffed into his pockets while he hung around and looked for Tony every few seconds. The other kids kept their distance, and Steve looked sullen enough that Tony almost didn’t blame them. When Tony had first met the guy, he’d been pretty terrified of him too. Although not for the same stupid reasons, mind you. Mostly because Steve was so startlingly attractive that Tony always wondered whether he’d been going into cardiac arrest whenever he’d been around.

Of course, when Steve saw Tony trudging up the hill, his face broke out into a smile reserved only for him. His shoulders relaxed a little. He looked more like himself. “Morning,” he said easily, his hand finding Tony’s and helping him up the hill with a small tug. His skin was deliciously cool against Tony’s overheated fingers. He hated walking, _especially_ when it was uphill. He tended to get warm far too easily, and so having an easy-access boyfriend to cool you down was truly a wonderful thing. “You seem chipper today.”

Tony grinned up at him in response and then pulled out his gift from the expanses of his pocket. He tossed it into Steve’s chest, and the boy’s free hand caught it easily. “Saw it in the store while I was buying brunch bars. Thought it would help satiate your chocolate addiction.”

Steve looked at it with a raised eyebrow, noting the halloweeny themed foiled chocolates within the cardboard box. There were all sorts in there; caramel brains, mini toffee apples, white chocolate vampire teeth. And seeing as Steve seemed to never stop eating chocolate, it would help enforce some positive associations with Halloween if what he was enjoying so much was to do with the holiday, right?

Steve looked at it for another few seconds, before he smiled and shook his head, leaning down to kiss Tony’s forehead. “You think of me when you’re buying brunch bars?” He asked somewhat smugly, grinning in the way that showed off the points of his teeth. Tony just rolled his eyes and shoved him gently.

“I think about you all the time, idiot.”

Steve paused at that, and Tony looked at him warily, wondering if that was too far. He and Steve had been officially dating for a month and four days now, which wasn’t a lot, in normal standards. But neither of them had ever actually been in a relationship before, and- well. Tony wasn’t lying. He _did_ think about Steve near-constantly.

Did Steve think that was weird? Was he wondering whether Tony was getting too clingy, or reconsidering the fact that—

“Stop thinking.” Steve pulled him back in and ducked down to kiss him before Tony’s mind could reach any higher, “That’s sweet. Thank you, Tony.”

Tony blushed and shrugged nonchalantly, turning toward the school again. But Steve tugged him back, an almost nervous look on his face as he rocked back on his feet. “And, uh. I think about you all the time too. So.” He lifted a shoulder absently before setting up walking again, his hand squeezing around Tony’s lightly. Tony smiled, knowing it was probably stupid to feel that happy at such a simple statement, but screw it. He was only intelligent when it came to robots. And Steve was no robot.

He felt a few eyes on them as they walked up together, but Tony was used to that by then, as were most people in the school, so they barely even batted an eyelash when Steve left Tony at the door of his science class with a long kiss and a shared laugh. They were just that weird Baseline Unhuman couple that everyone was sure was a sex thing, or a forced thing, or a whatever the fuck. Tony didn’t give a shit what they thought, personally. All he cared about was Steve.

Later on, though, when Steve was sat with him at lunch and rifling through his bag in search of his sketchbook, Tony noticed the box of chocolates were unopened. Which, for anyone else, might not have been odd. But Steve ate like a starving man and never ever saved his food for later. He always ate what was in front of him. _Especially_ when it was chocolate.

So the fact that Steve hadn’t even taken off the seal off the box? A definite loss.

Tony just didn’t get it, mostly. Sure, there were people who weren’t really into the whole season, but Steve seemed to take an active dislike in it. And it was a bit disappointing, seeing as Tony had been… well, he _loved_ Halloween, and he’d been totally looking forward to spending it with Steve. What better way to bring the spookiness alive than by spending the whole night cuddling up to your very own vampire boyfriend, after all?

He sighed, leaning back on his desk chair and swivelling around a little so that he was facing DUM-E. The bot chirped at him as he leaned forward to run a finger along his claw. “Any ideas?” He murmured quietly.

DUM-E rolled back and forth on the spot slightly, turning himself in order to lean down and grab Tony’s water bottle from the desk, where he then pushed it clumsily into Tony’s chest. Tony took it with a fond roll of his eyes. “I appreciate the concern, but staying hydrated isn’t the issue here.”

Not that that really mattered much to the bot, whose one sole aim in life was to assist and care for Tony. Once he saw the bottle in Tony’s hands, he beeped loudly at a job well done and then rolled away again, probably to go and badly fold some of Tony’s underwear. Tony watched him for a second, until the buzz of his phone snapped him out of his space-out session and he moved on, looking semi-exasperatedly at the deluge of memes Clint had sent into the group chat. Natasha then responded telling him to shut the hell up, to which he answered with yet more memes.

Being on his phone and adding in the occasional comment to Nat and Clint’s bickering eventually led to him flicking through his gallery absently while waiting for a response from his friends. The sight of his files, now filled with pictures of Steve, and Steve’s face, and his soft smile squished up next to Tony’s, was enough to lift his mood considerably, and he started to smile to himself as he curled up in bed and went through the ever-growing folder dedicated to his relationship.

The fact that he had this, and had it with one of the best people in the whole world, was something Tony didn’t think he would ever stop being grateful for. Talk about lucky.

Picking out one of his favourite ones- a selfie of him and Steve sat in his armchair, curled into one another and smiling tiredly into the camera- he cropped the image and then posted it up on his Instagram, tagging Steve in the corner and captioning it with a simple love heart. He didn’t have that many followers, but he got a buzz almost immediately to show Steve had responded to it; a self-deprecating comment about the crookedness of his smile, and then an extra comment about how pretty Tony looked. After a quick check to snapchat, he saw that Steve had not responded to any of the group’s conversation over there. But he’d answered Tony’s.

He was inordinately pleased about that.

Feeling warm and happy, Tony rolled onto his back and looked at the ceiling, his thoughts on Steve. He missed him. But that was weird, because Tony had only seen him this afternoon. Then again, it was just so easy to miss him as soon as he stopped being there. Tony wondered whether he might actually be addicted. This had to be unnatural behaviour. Steve had mentioned something about there being a mild chemical in his canines that had aphrodisiac qualities, among other things. After some probing on that, Tony had discovered that if Steve bit him, it’d be a bit like feeling high. It was so that any prey wouldn’t struggle or feel the pain as they died, but seeing as Steve wouldn’t be killing him, Tony _definitely_ wanted to explore that thoroughly at some point. But, back to his point—maybe that was what Tony was missing so much. Maybe he kept getting little tastes of it every time he kissed Steve. Was that a thing? He’d have to ask. Although, if it turned out that it _wasn’t_ a thing then it meant he’d have to explain to Steve that he suffered mild withdrawal symptoms every time they weren’t together, which would be a little embarrassing.

Tony turned onto his side, shutting his eyes and sighing. He was glad that neither Clint nor Natasha were in the room just then, because as teenage boys tend to do, his mind was rapidly descending to filthier places, and having a mind-reading friend watching that process would definitely not be something Tony wanted to experience. Their abilities were cool, but there was a time and a place. He breathed out slowly and then considered calling Steve for a little bit, just to hear his voice. But he felt that might not be enough. Tony wanted him _here_. Wanted to feel Steve’s hands on him, taste his kisses. Steve could even bite him, if he wanted. Tony knew people did it and loved it. And seeing as Steve mainly took animal blood and then substituted the rest of the nutrients with vitamin supplements, that’d probably be great for him as well as Tony. _God_, that’d be hot.

They hadn’t actually had sex yet, which was a little frustrating. Obviously, Tony was happy to wait for as long as necessary until Steve was ready, except he got the feeling that Steve _was_ ready, but they just kept missing their shot. It was difficult to get an empty house, difficult to find the time, and it definitely seemed like Steve was waiting for Tony to make the first move for whatever reason, so it was also a question of Tony trying to get up the courage to take that step. Which was admittedly a little easier said than done. Although Tony had often been propositioned at various events and shows for StarkIndustries, he’d always ended up saying no, and it wasn’t like you got much action when you were homeschooled, so he’d never actually had sex with anyone before. But he knew that Steve had, and that it’d been with a variety of Unhumans who had various… _capabilities_, that made them extra appealing and good at that sort of stuff. Steve’s first time had been with a goddamn _succubus_, for Christ’s sake.

Tony just didn’t want to suck at it in comparison, basically. That would… well. It would suck.

So he’d probably been a little apprehensive about asking, or making any moves. He was being careful about the planning. He was going to make it damn phenomenal, thank you very much. It was just about timing—

In that second, an idea popped into his head, and he sat bolt upright in bed, face breaking out into another smile. Just like that, he now had a plan that could perfectly tie up all of his issues into one big happy package. Scrambling off the bed and looking for his calendar in the piles of debris and litter on his desk, Tony double-checked the dates, just to be sure. But he was right: his parents would be going to Madrid on the 29th, and they wouldn’t be getting back until the 4th of November. That left an empty house on none other than Halloween itself. And maybe if Tony gave Steve a really, _really_ good blowjob that night, he’d start thinking maybe the day wasn’t so bad after all. Win win.

It’d be perfect. He could invite everyone around to his place, they could dress up and have a good time, and then Steve could stay the night. He knew the other boy was free, seeing as he’d subtly asked as much a few days previously. And he still had eleven days to actually hash everything out, set the groundwork and so forth. Steve had been pretty impervious to any attempts at getting him in the Halloween spirit before this, but Tony knew he could do it. Slow and steady wins the race, after all. He’d send Steve a text now inviting him over, and later on once he’d tried a few more persuasive tactics throughout the week, Tony would reveal that it was going to be Halloween-themed. He knew where he could get some cool decorations, too. And maybe Steve really was dead-set against horror films, but there were different things they could do as substitute for it. 

It’d be fun. And possibly sexy. The best combination, in Tony’s eyes.

He found his phone and sent off a text to Steve, feeling pretty satisfied with his plan. In his excited, socially backward mind, he genuinely could not think of a single reason why it wouldn’t work out. Tony liked Halloween, Steve liked Tony… they could meet in the middle, surely?

It was the 30th when Tony discovered that no, actually, that was not going to happen.

Seeing as Tony’s parents were on the other side of the planet by then, he felt it safe enough to invite Steve over, and they’d been lolling around in Tony’s workshop since that morning. Now that it was around dinner-time, they were in the kitchen, having just finished preparing the food that was now cooking in the oven. Although, when Tony says _they_, he meant Steve, mostly. Tony chopped the tomatoes though! Which admittedly, Steve then had to re-chop, but still. It was a learning process, and Steve said it was cute, in a hopeless way.

Tony had just left Steve to it after that. He was pretty sure he actually hindered the process a little with his distractions, but that was a fifty-fifty thing. Steve didn’t _have_ to spend so long kissing him that the onions started to burn in the pan, after all.

“You’re a menace,” Steve informed him after he’d opened the window to blow out some of the smoke, “please never try and cook your own meals. You’ll burn your house down.”

Tony shrugged, hopping onto the counter and wiggling his eyebrows at Steve from across the room. He felt pretty smug about it all, if he was being honest. “Hey, this was your idea. You said you were the amazing cook, and I _told_ you, I said, ‘Steve, baby, this won’t go well’, and did you listen?” He waved to the onions. “No. And now it’s all ruined.”

“Well, that’s your fault.”

“That’s _your_ fault. You were supposed to be the responsible one.”

“You were the one who distracted me with your, your stupid mouth,” Steve grumbled as he tossed the charred remains into the trash. “You got any more onions?”

Tony grinned and then leaned forward to access the bag of onions in the cupboard underneath where he was sat. He waved them around. “You’ll have to work for them,” he informed the other boy, winking when Steve cocked his head, “and I warn you; don’t get side-tracked nearly as easy as—”

Like a flash, Steve had crossed the room and boxed Tony in on the counter, hands pressing flat on either side of Tony’s thighs. He didn’t use many of his enhancements much, especially not in public. He loosened up around other Unhumans, but as it went, Tony often forgot that he was even a vampire at all. On rare occasions, though- like when he moved across the expansive kitchen and ended up not even half an inch away from Tony’s nose in the space of a second- it became impossible to ignore the fact that his boyfriend was, in fact, a superhuman.

That was… distractingly hot, to say the least.

“What were you saying?” Steve asked, grinning like a smug bastard as he took in Tony’s slack face. He dipped in for a soft kiss, hand winding around Tony’s wrist before snatching the bag out of it with a laugh. “All talk, Stark. That’s what you are.”

Tony considered carrying on the bickering for a little while longer, but Steve’s mouth was right there, soft and gorgeous, and as much as he loved listening to Steve talk, he much preferred feeling Steve kiss him. So he just shrugged, muttered, “Guilty,” and then wound his hand around the back of Steve’s neck to pull him in again.

They remained there for a good few minutes or so, Steve fitting himself in between Tony’s legs as he sat on the counter up in front of him. His mouth felt delicious, skin soft against Tony’s, and the occasional hum of pleasure from low in Steve’s throat sent little shivers down Tony’s neck every time. Tony had kissed a few people before; again, this was mostly at StarkInudstries events while drunk. The people involved had always been older, and always just been looking for a way to kill time, so it’d never been particularly life-changing. But kissing Steve felt like finding Nirvana. He just _knew_. Knew exactly what Tony would like, knew where to put his hands, how to keep things interesting. He didn’t do things for himself, he did them so Tony would enjoy it too. And, if he was being shallow about it, Steve was simply so achingly fucking _hot_ that Tony was convinced Steve could just lick his face for ten minutes and he’d still get turned on by it. It was a little sad, honestly, but at this point Tony just needed to look at the boy’s lovely, angular, _sizeable_ hands and he’d get a hard-on.

Case in point; he felt Steve’s fingers move down from the small of his back, trailing across his sides until his hands wrapped themselves under the bottom of Tony’s thighs, hitching them up and pulling Tony in a little closer. Tony made a breathy noise, which Steve swallowed up immediately with a twitch of a smile on his lips. He knew exactly what he was doing, the bastard.

Tony was aware of his plan- he knew it was really supposed to be tomorrow that he put out all the stops and then, well, _literally_ put out, but God it was hard to keep it in his pants just then.

“Thoughts on me dressing up as a playboy bunny for Halloween tomorrow?” Tony asked with a raised eyebrow, pulling away for a second to gauge Steve’s reaction. “I have been told I look good in rabbit ears.”

Steve paused, considering it. Then he frowned. “Who’s been telling you you look good in rabbit ears?” He asked somewhat sulkily, dragging his eyes toward the space above Tony’s head, presumably to visualise the image. “Also, I sure as hell wouldn’t mind, but you might look a bit out of place with the rest of us in normal clothes.”

“Ah, well actually, I was thinking we could all dress up,” Tony steeled himself as they broached the more uncertain waters, “you know, have a whole Halloween bash at my place. You could go as, like, a sexy vampire. And you already fill out the vampire part, so you could just take off your shirt and Bob’s your uncle!”

Steve stilled, his smile dropping. He pulled away a second later. “Tony, we’ve talked about this,” he said, voice gentle, but underlined with something Tony couldn’t pinpoint. However, he didn’t let that stop him, hands tightening in Steve’s shirt as he attempted to convey his point.

“Look, I know you say you don’t do Halloween or whatever, but it’d be lowkey, just you and the rest of the guys coming over. We could eat shitty candy and take cool pictures and whatever, and just have fun. Be relaxed. Like any other party, except with more fake blood and toffee apples.” Tony smiled at him reassuringly, but for whatever reason Steve didn’t seem to be taking the bait. His smile was gone entirely now, and he slipped out of Tony’s grip, taking the bag of onions to the chopping board and picking up a knife to begin cutting again.

“None of us celebrate Halloween,” he said bluntly, “and none of us want to, okay? It’s a shitty, shallow celebration that doesn’t mean anything. We’ll come over if it’s just a normal gathering, but we’re not… we don’t do that.”

Tony looked at him, bewildered. His heart was sinking rapidly—why couldn’t Steve just humour him, at the very least? He knew Tony enjoyed it. And Tony always made sure to at least extend a little interest over _Steve’s_ things, even when they were stupid and boring, like baseball. “It’s just a bit of fun,” he said, pulling a face, “you don’t need to take such a strong stance about it. All it is is an excuse for people to dress up and for kids to eat candy and watch scary films—”

“It’s an excuse for Baseliners to pretend to be someone Unhuman for the one day of the year where they won’t get fucking attacked for it, you mean?” Steve slammed the knife back down on the chopping board and turned to Tony, his good mood having apparently evaporated completely. “Christ, Tony, all month you’ve been bugging me about this stupid fucking day, and all month I’ve been telling you I don’t like it. Why are you still pushing this?”

Tony’s mouth dropped. That wasn’t… “I just—” he began, but suddenly everything he wanted to say fell flat on his tongue. It sounded stupid. _I really wanted to celebrate Halloween with my friends_? Well, apparently those friends were against the whole concept of it, so that was a no_. I thought it would be a nice coupley thing to do?_ Christ, that was even worse.

“It’s just harmless fun,” he repeated in the end, voice weak, “thought that you would all—”

“Yeah, well, we don’t.” Steve’s jaw was tight and he glared at Tony for a second before blinking and then breaking his disdain with a sigh. He ran a hand over his face. “Look, Tony, I didn’t want to rain on your parade, but for Unhumans? Halloween sucks. Halloween is the day when everyone stops treating us like a disease and starts treating us like a joke instead, and I don’t know which one is worse. Those scary movies you love so much? It’s just… it’s just full of anti-Unhuman sentiment. Big bad vampire slash werewolf slash demon, poor innocent Baseliner? Yeah. Like we haven’t heard that before.”

Tony’s forehead wrinkled. It seemed like a bit of reach to him, in that moment. “Okay, maybe you’ve got a point with the movies,” he said, “but… but the rest, it’s just… it’s just lighthearted. No one is making fun of you, Steve. And they… people dress up as all sorts. Cats and cops and nurses and stuff. It’s not always…”

“About me?” Steve finished icily, which, _no_, Tony hadn’t been going to say, but it was too late to explain that anyway. “Yeah, right. My mistake.” His eyes were cold now, arms folded, his whole demeanour suddenly closed off, and God, this was a pretty rapid decline considering they’d been making out not even minutes ago. “You know, someone once spat at Natasha on the street when they saw she was a demon. But tomorrow, you’ll go out there and see a hundred people with red eyes, walking around having the time of their lives. They get to wear the trait for a few hours and then take ‘em out as soon as it stops being a problem. Natasha can’t do that. Natasha just has to take the spit.”

Steve shook his head, a twisted smile on his face as he looked out of the window. “And when we get a knock on our door with a little family of kids dressed up as vampires, my Ma will smile at them, because she never turns people away at the door, even on Halloween. But then the parents will see the teeth in our grin, and they’ll realise we’re the real deal, and suddenly she’ll start pulling her kids away, because it’s alright to dress up as one, but it’s a completely different fucking thing to _be_ one. So no, Tony. Unhumans don’t celebrate Halloween. It’s not designed for us. It’s designed at the expense of us.”

Tony looked at Steve, suddenly feeling a hundred times smaller. It just… it all seemed so absurd to him. Halloween was supposed to be fun, but Steve was so upset by all of it. It was like someone had gone and poured cold water all down Tony’s neck. He didn’t know what to say, so he said the first thing popped into his head. “Can’t you… Why can’t you just have fun on the one day that normal people are gonna accept you?”

It was the wrong thing to say. Tony knew that as soon as it came out of his mouth, and he blinked, tried to mentally take them back out of the room, but it was no use. Steve was staring at him like he’d just punched him in the face. The room was oppressively silent for a moment as they looked at one another, Tony with horror, Steve with betrayal.

“ ‘Normal’ people?” Steve repeated the phrase shakily, finally breaking the silence with Tony’s own words, and no, no, Tony hadn’t meant it like that, and he jumped off the counter, opening his mouth to say as much—but Steve held up a finger in warning, his jaw tight, eyes ice. “I don’t fucking _want_ ‘normal’ people to accept me for one day of the year. I want to be accepted _every day_ of the fucking year, Tony. Jesus. I thought you understood that—”

“I _do_, fuck, I’m so sorry,” Tony stumbled forward, hands up, reaching out. But Steve stepped away with a shake of his head and then started walking, his footsteps damning on the kitchen floor. “Steve, please wait, I didn’t mean—”

“I’m going out,” Steve told him sharply, shaking his turned head and grabbing his coat from the rack. “I need a fucking breather. Please don’t follow me.”

Tony felt like there was lead in his chest. He felt like an idiot, a jerk. He hadn’t… it had been so badly worded, the whole thing had been stupid, he should have just listened to what Steve had to say. “Steve, please just let me—"

“Goodnight,” Steve said. He didn’t even turn and look at him as he slammed out of Tony’s house, and the sound reverberating heavily in the corridor where Tony was still stood, staring at the vacated space while his heart thumped in his chest. He took an aborted step forward. Steve said not to follow him. And Tony had already done enough damage tonight.

Jesus. He was an asshole.

He’d never thought of it like that. Never even considered, for a second, that Steve’s grumpiness was anything other than surface-level irritation that could be changed with some well-placed chocolates and pumpkin-themed socks.

Fuck, what an _idiot_. What a stupid fucking idiot.

Of course Steve wouldn’t like it. The more Tony thought about it, the more he could see it. The costumes, the movies, the candy- it was all just a sham. They wore the fake teeth and made themselves look pale and then in the morning, they took it off and went back to hating the real vampires just as much as they had before. The party-goers all dressed up like slutty versions of real people, who they would then refuse to let into the very same bars where the Baseliners were partying in. Jesus, Tony hadn’t even considered it, but he remembered that there were little kids who got dressed up to be Hunters and one little kid who pretended to be some sort of Unhuman, presumably to act as the hunted. Tony had given them Halloween candy last year and thought nothing of it.

He wanted to be sick. What the hell must Steve think of him? He’d been bigging it up for the whole fucking month. Then he’d gone and said all that, like _Steve_ was the one being irrational.

He sunk back into the wall, suddenly unsteady. Steve was going to break up with him, for sure. Because Tony was a fucking insensitive dick and absolutely deserved it. God, he’d implied Steve wasn’t _normal_. What kind of person said that? He knew exactly what Steve went through, being a vampire. He’d seen it first-hand, after going on a date and then watching Steve be told to leave for none other than the fact that he had fangs and vampires weren’t allowed in the restaurant. Now Tony sounded just as bad as them. _Normal_. Christ, why did he have to say the worst fucking things?

His hands were shaking, and he could feel his eyes prick. In the space of one conversation, he’d managed to ruin everything.

He wasn’t sure how long he stayed leaning against the wall before moving, but the fire alarm eventually rocked him out of whatever trance he’d fallen into, and he remembered that the lamb Steve had been making was now burning in the oven. With a curse, Tony stumbled back through the kitchen and yanked it out, cursing when the hot dish brushed his skin. It was charred and shitty. Not that Tony really cared.

He stared at it for a few moments, before deciding he couldn’t be bothered dealing with it. Instead, he turned on his heel and made his way upstairs, pulling out his phone as he did so in order to send Steve a text. Even if Steve wanted nothing to do with him, he deserved an apology.

_Steve, I need you to know that I’m so so so sorry about what I said. It was coming from a place of ignorance, and I didn’t even try to see where you were coming from because I was too caught up in my own stupid failed plans. It didn’t take me long to realize how dumb I was being. I know I can’t take it back, but I’m just so fucking sorry. Please call me when you can. If you want to. _

Tony wanted to end it with an I love you, but he figured he didn’t really have that right. They hadn’t said it before now, and it was unlikely Tony would be able to in the future, so it most certainly wasn’t his place to do that now.

He wiped at his face, realising that his eyes were watering. Stupid. Stupid, he’d messed it all up. Now Steve was going to think he was just like everyone else and break up with him, and then all their other friends would take Steve’s side, obviously, and Tony would be alone again. What did he expect though, to be honest—it was inevitable he’d screw it all up eventually. He’d just thought that he might have been able to get some more time in before that.

Not that any of that mattered. This wasn’t about Tony. This was about Steve, and the ugly truth behind the celebration Tony had adored so much. Now it just left a horrible taste in his mouth. He couldn’t get excited over something that Steve and every other Unhuman hated so much. It wasn’t right.

Tony sniffed, opening up his Pinterest and rapidly deleting everything Halloween-themed. Then he did the same for his other social media, clearing it of everything. Once that was done, he did the same for his room, piling any chocolates or decorations into the bin and stepping on it viciously.

His heart felt heavy and he ached. It should have been cathartic, getting rid of something that was causing Steve pain, but it just didn’t feel like enough. He needed to do more.

DUM-E beeped curiously at him as he threw himself angrily onto his desk chair and switched on his computer. At one point, he’d tried taking the stuff out of the trash, and Tony had had to yell at him. He’d apologised a few seconds later, but now DUM-E seemed to be rolling around the room a little more cautiously. Tony knew he was going to have to give the bot a good oiling before he stopped being sulky.

His desktop whirred to life, and he looked at it blankly for a second as a billion thoughts exploded in his mind. Then he pressed his fingers lightly over the keyboard and tapped a few buttons, opening up the source code editor in his taskbar. It was his own design, and he’d been playing with computer programs since before he could talk, so he knew what he had planned shouldn’t take too long. It would have probably been sped up a little bit if he’d stopped checking his phone for any sign of a response every two minutes, but you couldn’t have everything.

Eventually, though, he fell into the zone. Driven by determination and anger and a dozen other emotions, Tony worked voraciously through the hours, first doing the research and checking out any similar contents on the web, then working off that in order to make his own. He’d never made a website or blog before, but he knew the basics of it, and he knew how he wanted it to be laid out.

The problem was ignorance. Tony couldn’t think of any explanation as to why there was so much pushback against Unhuman autonomy or rights. Baseliners simply weren’t taught enough about them, and they never had been. There were hundreds of thousands of years’ worth of stigma and fear, whole myths and legends and societies built off the back of their fear of Unhumans. And so the status quo wasn’t changing. But it was the 21st century, and it needed to. For people like Steve, it fucking needed to.

And Tony wasn’t stupid. He knew Unhumans themselves would never be able to get the sort of reach that someone like Tony could. And, seeing as most Baseliners still didn’t trust Unhumans, it was leaving a gaping hole in education that no one was filling. Sure, Tony had seen a few websites and organizations that were on the same lines as him, but they hadn’t seemed to gain very much traction.

So this was where Tony was going to come in.

And sure, Steve was probably going to break up with him imminently, which Tony was very pointedly not thinking about via distracting himself with this, but even if he did, Tony wasn’t going to just discard this idea. Whether Steve loved him or hated him, he didn’t deserve the treatment he got. No one fucking did.

He worked until his eyes hurt, until his back was aching from hunching over the computer for so long. But, at the end of it, he had what he was after. The title was a work in progress- Project BADAUSS, obviously pronounced ‘badass’, because Tony was not passing on the opportunity presented to him, and standing for ‘Baseliner Allyship and Defence Against Unhuman Social Stigma’. It was the beginning of what Tony hoped to be an in-depth and informative website. Including blog entries, personal experiences, the option to send in content material with an anonymous feature available, and a breakdown of what it _really_ meant to be Unhuman. He was going to start with an article on Halloween, seeing as it was freshest in his mind, and he knew his way around promoting specific material online, so he’d make sure that this wasn’t going to fail. He could create a few other social media accounts as well, really get it out there. And he knew scientists, psychologists, neurobiologists that could give him the straight facts. He had the connections. It was time he used them for something worthwhile.

The next time he looked at the clock again, it was nearly midnight. He’d worked for four hours, and now it all looked about ready. He’d still need to gather some more sources and material before he could launch it, but that shouldn’t take long. And then he could focus on promoting it to the masses.

Until then, though, his work was done. He needed a break. Needed coffee. That was probably the reason he hadn’t stopped shaking since Steve had left. Just caffeine deprivation.

He wandered back downstairs, footsteps echoing through the empty halls as he made his way back to the kitchen. It still smelled acutely of burning, and it was only once Tony got to the kitchen table that he realised the lamb casserole dish had scorched the wooden surface underneath it. Tony shut his eyes and tried desperately not to think of the way his parents would react to that. He didn’t have the energy to worry about it, not with everything else going on. Every time his mind strayed to Steve and how he was going to end things, Tony forced himself back to the coding, the website construction, the contents that he had planned. He was going to make it fucking perfect, and people were going to sit up and take notice of it. It would be great. And hell, Tony had no friends anyway, so it wasn’t like getting any hate online was going to faze him. He had nothing to lose. Except possibly his home, if Howard caught wind of it.

He poured his coffee with unsteady hands, clutching it between his fingers while he stared at the mess of the kitchen. He was going to have to clean all this up. And cancel the party tomorrow. Not that any of them would show up anyway, once Steve broke the news to them. Tony was kidding himself when he called them friends, to be honest. They were Steve’s friends who tolerated Tony. They weren’t going to care when Steve dumped him.

Steve was going to dump him. Oh God, that hurt. In fact, Steve was probably out somewhere moving on already. Because he was hot, and he was already involved in a close community of equally hot people, and hell, he and Tony had only been dating for a month and a half anyway, so maybe Steve didn’t even think it’d ever been serious in the first place.

Tony was fucking stupid. He’d told himself he wouldn’t mess this one up, and look at him. Already failed, and through nothing but his own stupid behaviour. He absolutely did not blame Steve for this. Considering the fact that he got enough shit from every other Baseliner in the world, he had no reason to put up with it from Tony. God- he’d essentially told Steve to just lie down and take the mocking for the day so that Tony could have his fun. What kind of boyfriend—

His phone rang, and Tony nearly jumped out of his skin, splashing coffee everywhere as he jerked. The scalding liquid stung where it stained his arm, but he ignored it in favour of reaching for his phone and looking at it through tired eyes. When he saw the caller ID, he ended up dropping the coffee entirely in his haste to answer. “Steve?”

“Hi,” Steve said, and his voice didn’t sound angry any more, didn’t sound sad or irritated or cold, there was a slight lowering of pitch toward the end of the word like maybe he was tired, but other than that— “I know it’s late, but… Look, can I come over again? We should probably talk.”

We should probably talk. Otherwise known as ‘we need to talk’, otherwise known as the number one way to break up with someone. Tony sagged against the counter. He wanted to say yes, but he wasn’t sure the word would even come out whole. So he just hummed his agreement, giving it a few seconds before adding, “That’s fine, yeah.”

“Okay, cool. Uh. I’m outside your door right now, so…” Steve laughed awkwardly, “Just wanted to make sure I was still welcome before I barged in, y’know.”

_You’re always welcome_, Tony wanted to say. Not that that mattered now. Steve probably wouldn’t be visiting much, if at all, now. “No, uh—come through. I’m in the kitchen.”

Steve hummed his acknowledgement and then called off, and a second later Tony heard his front door opening. He turned hastily back to the now-broken coffee cup and its contents, both scattered on the floor at his feet. In order to busy himself with something, he grabbed for the paper towels on the side and then dropped down to start cleaning it, all the while hearing Steve’s footsteps on the tiles as they approached through the hall.

He saw in his periphery as Steve arrived in the kitchen and forced himself to look up. Being on the floor, he realized, was a stupid way to be broken up with, so he hurriedly stood up again. Then he actually took Steve in, and his mouth dropped open with shock.

“Happy Halloween?” Steve said with a faint blush, folding up his back leg behind him in an impersonation of what Tony assumed to be the infamous playboy pose. He was still dressed the same way he had been when he’d walked out, but on his head this time were a large pair of black bunny ears. “As it just so happens, I passed a fancy dress shop and saw these in the window as I was making my way here. Seemed like fate.”

Tony had no idea what to say. He was pretty sure his brain had just frozen up at that point, unable to handle so many things at once. Steve was going to break up with him. This seemed like a strange thing to do for someone you were going to break up with.

Sensing Tony probably wasn’t going to respond, Steve’s smile dropped a little, although in fairness it had been shaky to begin with. He swallowed and stepped forward. “Listen, Tony—”

“I am so sorry,” Tony was speaking before he even knew what he was going to say, the words tumbling out of his mouth like waterfalls, uncontained, “Steve, I never meant… I phrased my words in a shitty way, and I didn’t listen to what you were trying to tell me because I was being jerk, and I get it now, I do, and I- I swear, I won’t ever bring it up again. I’ve thrown all my Halloween junk out. I don’t want to celebrate it if it upsets you and I _mean_ that, I do, and I know that that’s not enough and I understand that you probably still don’t want to be with me any more, but I want you to know—”

“Hey, hey, what?” Moving in that Unhumanly fast way of his, Steve crossed the room and settled his hands against Tony’s shoulders, squeezing tightly and looking down at Tony’s face with distress written across his own expression. “Sweetheart, you’re shaking. Why are you shaking? Why would you think I don’t want to be with you any more?” His thumbs brushed delicately over Tony’s shoulders, skimming the skin at the collar of his shirt. He pulled Tony over to the table and then sat him on a chair before pulling up one for himself and then sitting right in front of Tony, their knees brushing. Then he settled his hands around Tony’s, which were bunched up in his lap. “Talk to me,” he said. “What’s going through your head?”

Tony looked at him with blank confusion. This was not right. Steve should be angry with him. “You said you wanted to talk,” he muttered, “You said… after our fight, when I was a stupid asshole, you stormed out and then you called and said you wanted to… and you want to break up now. Which is fine. Well. It’s not fine, but I get it. I get it.”

Steve looked pained, and his fingers tightened around Tony’s. “I don’t want to break up with you,” he said firmly. “We had an argument. I got angry. But I don’t want to break up with you, okay? Absolutely not.” He licked his lips and looked down for a brief moment. “I shouldn’t have left you to stew in it. I shouldn’t have stormed off like that, and I’m sorry.”

“Steve, you don’t have anything to be sorry for.”

“Yes I do.” Steve nodded firmly, and atop his head, the ears jiggled with enthusiasm. It might have been funny, had Tony any brain power left to expend upon the sight. “You made a mistake, you said some things that hurt me. But then I refused to try and resolve anything, and rather than explaining things to you in a calm manner and letting you arrive at your conclusion in a healthy way, I walked off and left you to stew in all those thoughts of yours. And that was my mistake. I… I forget that you’re not like everyone else, Tony. I forget that you would actually listen to me, and I’m sorry for that.” Steve seemed genuinely earnest when he said it, and that in itself was enough to make Tony feel like his cognitive functions were going into meltdown. He had about a dozen different hormones buzzing through him right now, his body’s preparation for the inevitable sadness, and now they had nowhere to go. Because apparently the events of this night were not ones that would end with a breakup.

Shit. He and Steve weren’t going to break up. He hadn’t blown everything.

“I’m sorry I was pushy,” Tony managed to get out in the end, once he was sure he wouldn’t do something terrible like burst into tears with relief. “It was selfish of me and I should have gotten the message.”

Steve sighed. “It wasn’t all your fault,” he said softly, worrying at his lip with his bottom teeth. “I never mentioned it was an Unhuman thing. You didn’t know, and you seemed to really love Halloween, and I didn’t want to rain on your parade so I just let you get on with it without giving you a proper reason, just expecting… I dunno, expecting it to go away in the end, I guess.” Steve laughed self-deprecatingly. “And then, surprise surprise, it doesn’t, and I get overly upset by you continuing on with it, despite the fact that I never gave you any real incentive to stop.”

“Why didn’t you just tell me?” Tony asked in confusion.

Steve didn’t speak for a moment. He seemed troubled as he looked back down at the floor, the golden blond strands of his hair falling forward and the tips of the ears poking Tony in the shoulder. “Because I just feel like… I feel like I ruin all your fun by being Unhuman,” he said quietly, glancing up at Tony for a moment before once more averting his gaze. “I’m not ashamed of who I am. I’m not. But— but I know how much of a downer it must be to just be enjoying things and then get told by your miserable vampire boyfriend that you can’t enjoy it because it’s incorrect, or it’s bigoted, or the company that owns it hates Unhumans or whatever.” He shrugged minutely. “I imagine it wouldn’t take very long for you to get very bummed out and annoyed by that. I didn’t want to push you away.”

Tony pulled an incredulous face, untangling his fingers from Steve’s in order to move them instead to his neck, tilting his head back up so he was looking at Tony. Before he could let his remaining nerves get in the way, he pressed a kiss to Steve’s cheek. “I want you to tell me every single fucking time,” he declared vigorously, “every time, Steve, you hear me? I don’t care how much I love it. If it hurts you, then it’s not for me. And you don’t… you don’t need to meet me in the middle or compromise on this stuff, okay. You don’t need to put on the stupid ears,” Tony’s fingers moved, tugging off the plastic ears and then tossing them onto the table, “not if the thing that you’re celebrating is a thing that exists off the back of your misery. I don’t want you to do that. Not ever.”

Steve paused, looking sideways at the ears. “It’s not… it’s not _all_ bad,” he said eventually, a small smile twitching on his mouth, “not when it’s that sort of costume. It’s just that most of them… well, most of them aren’t playboy bunnies and sexy cops, and it’s the bad stuff that I associate Halloween with. But I do think we could meet in the middle a little bit. Maybe not, y’know, go through every tradition, but I could get behind some fancy dress, if you still wanted?”

Tony thought it over. “I don’t want to make any of your friends uncomfortable—”

“Hey, since when did they start becoming ‘my’ friends again?” Steve frowned. “_Our_ friends wouldn’t mind, I don’t think. Except maybe Natasha. She really _really_ hates Halloween, so she probably won’t want to do anything.”

“Then there’s not much point, is there? I don’t want a party where the underlying thoughts are about Natasha not being there and why that is. We could… it could just be us, tomorrow. Just hanging out, normal day.” Tony paused, before adding, “Maybe with the bunny ears thrown in.”

“You like the ears?” Steve grinned, leaning forward in order to get his hands around Tony’s waist and pull him in so that Tony was transferred from his own seat and into Steve’s lap. Once that was done, he grabbed the shiny black plastic on the table and then opened it up, sliding them onto Tony instead. Tony smiled and batted his lashes, feeling the way his boyfriend’s grip tightened around his hips, the way his eyes darkened. “You, uh- you suit them better than me,” he declared in the end, voice a little throaty.

Tony smiled at him, his hands wrapping gently around either side of Steve’s neck while he leaned down to kiss him. He felt… well, he felt a lot of things. Relieved, mainly, that he hadn’t ruined all of this. Glad that Steve had confided in him. A little horny, but that was just a constant whenever Steve was around, so he couldn’t really count that.

He felt Steve’s arms tighten around his waist, pulling Tony in flush against him. Tony was aware he’d been trying to stick to his plan, yes, but that seemed to be down the drain now. Although he had the ears on, so at least he had completed the ‘wear a sexy outfit’ part of it. Sort of. He was going to conveniently ignore the coffee stains on his white shirt, the burn mark on the back of his hand and the fact that his hair smelled like burnt things. The ears offset all that. It was fine.

Leaning in and deepening the kiss, he brushed his tongue against Steve’s mouth, feeling it skate over his canines. He made a small noise in the back of his throat as a thousand scenarios popped into his mind. “Sorry for being a fucking asshole,” he mumbled, because he wanted Steve to really know he meant it.

Steve just hummed, dropping his mouth down Tony’s chin, over the skin of his throat. “Forgive you,” he slurred, before burying his nose into Tony’s skin and taking a sharp breath in, and _God_, that was so hot. Tony gasped. “Fuck, you smell so good. So good.”

“You can taste, if you want,” Tony blurted, and Steve shuddered violently at the words, his grip tightening to the point that bordered on pain as he made a low noise in his throat and kissed Tony’s neck, the cleaner version of what they were both thinking of. Definitely interested in that, then. “You wanna stay the night?”

Steve paused for a moment, managing to drag himself away in order to have a semi-coherent conversation. “Do _you_ want me to stay the night?” He responded with, having to drag his gaze away from Tony’s mouth in order to look at his eyes instead. Ever the gentlemen.

Tony didn’t hold himself to quite the same standards, however, as he took Steve’s hand and slipped it over his crotch, pressing his fingers downward against the tent in his pants. Steve’s breath hitched again. “I’ll let you work that one out,” Tony said with a grin, before leaning down and licking into Steve’s mouth. “You know where the bedroom is.”

Steve did, and with one easy motion, he was stood up with Tony held up in his sturdy grip and making his way over to the stairs. Tony could hardly believe that about fifteen minutes ago he’d been convinced Steve would never even want to talk to him again, and now… well. They were going upstairs. To have sex. Were Tony not so busy sucking on Steve’s tongue, he might have cheered. This day had definitely been a rollercoaster, but it seemed to be ending on a high at the very least.

He twined his fingers through the hairs on the back of Steve’s head, breaking away so he could smile softly. Their foreheads touched. “Thank you for coming back,” he murmured, hearing his door swing open as Steve kicked at it with the toe of his shoe.

Steve returned the smile. “Thank you for apologizing.”

“Thank you for accepting my apology.”

“Thank you for being so cute.”

“Thank you— wait, woah, I’m not cute!” Tony leaned back, frowning deeply as he pointed at the ears Steve had slid onto his head earlier. “I am hot, I am _sexy_! I’m not cute!”

Steve leaned down, setting him on the bed gently and then rocking back, looking Tony up and down. His cheeks were flushed, blue eyes turning silvery in his arousal—and boy, hadn’t _that_ been a wonderful surprise when Tony had seen it happen for the first time. “You are _kind_ _of_ cute,” Steve admitted with a toothy grin, looking unbearably happy as he curled his hands around the back of Tony’s knees. “Also very hot and sexy though, don’t worry.”

Tony folded his arms and huffed. “You’re god damn right I am.”

“Oh, he’s getting cocky now, huh?” Steve raised an eyebrow and then leaned back down again, his hands braced at Tony’s sides. Tony was drawn to the way Steve’s hair fell forward. It was something he tended to notice a lot, and he wasn’t sure why. It was just so oddly endearing. He always forgot to arrange haircuts, and so by the end of the month his bangs would be falling into his eyes at every opportunity, much to Steve’s irritation.

He shuffled up onto his elbows and met Steve’s mouth in the middle, one hand lifting up to tuck the loose strands of blond hair behind his ear. Steve chuckled into Tony’s mouth, but it petered out a few seconds later to be replaced with a breathless hum of pleasure, his body rocking forward and pushing Tony down onto his back again, this time with Steve lying over him, his hands splayed across the small of Tony’s back, pulling him up to meet Steve’s body. It felt so nice. Everything about Steve felt nice. Because Steve was just… _nice_. Possibly an understatement of the century, but Tony’s brain was currently occupied with other things, so he couldn’t think of a better adjective.

Steve was nice, and he was so beautiful, and he was here, with Tony of all people. That was just so crazy. Of all people in the world, Steve should have been the last person on Earth to want him. And Tony could admit, he’d been going to spend the whole of tomorrow morning googling how to be good at sex, seeing as the plan had been that he and Steve would be doing that _tomorrow_ and not _today_, which meant that he didn’t even have that advantage on his side any more. He could do this really fucking terribly and ruin everything, for all he knew. And yeah, yeah, he got that that was probably a little overdramatic. But still. He’d had a long fucking day.

Like he could sense it—which, thanks to Steve’s rather uncanny ability to smell emotions, was probably the case—Steve paused, pulling away and looking down at Tony. “You’re nervous,” he said with a small frown, brushing his thumb over Tony’s lip, “what’re you nervous about, huh?”

Tony rolled his eyes and hoped Steve wouldn’t be able to see the blush of embarrassment. “I’m not nervous,” he tried, but when Steve just made a disbelieving face at him, Tony huffed. “Alright, I’m a _little_ nervous. I’ve just never done this before. And I don’t—I want to be good for you.” Okay, now he was definitely blushing. That was a dumb thing to say. That was way too pathetic, now Steve was going to think he was like some lovesick idiot or something. Which he absolutely was. But Steve didn’t need to know that.

Steve, however, didn’t even seem to care about how tragic it sounded, because his whole face turned soft and he cocked his head at Tony before pulling him into an all-consuming embrace, mouth pressing into his temple. “There is no possible way you could be _bad_ for me,” he explained reassuringly, “it’s you. Whatever we do will be good. It’ll be amazing. And we don’t have to—”

“Nuh uh, don’t finish that sentence,” Tony said quickly, scrambling to action before Steve could say something horrendous like ‘_we don’t need to have sex if you don’t want to’_. His fingers found Steve’s belt buckle, and he undid it hastily. “Just get those pants off, please.”

Steve laughed, giving Tony a look filled with so much adoration that Tony didn’t quite know what to do with it all. He took a mental snapshot and stored it away for later, heartbeat increasing in his own ears as he felt Steve’s hands settle on the buttons of Tony’s own jeans, deftly undoing them while keeping his mouth fixed on Tony’s throat. He was an excellent multitasker—even better than Tony, thanks to his truly astounding coordination. Tony briefly thought about the sorts of things he could do with his hands, and then very quickly pushed it away. He was _not_ going to come as soon as Steve touched him, and so he needed some self-restraint.

It wasn’t even a full minute before all their clothes were strewn messily over the bed, Tony pressed into the mattress as Steve lay on top of him, skin to skin, mouth to mouth. It felt heavenly; Tony’s hot skin pressing up against Steve’s deliciously cool body, keeping things from getting sticky or uncomfortable. Steve knew what he was doing, he knew how to make it all seem easy, keeping Tony laughing and relaxed and pliant through it all, up until the laughter turned to gasps because _fuck_, alright, yeah, that was good. That was really good. Tony knew he should probably loosen his grip on Steve’s shoulders, but hey, the guy seemed to be enjoying it just as much if the noises he was making were anything to go by.

They kissed through it all. Tony liked that especially. He wasn’t sure why, but he’d thought that there would be less of it. But Steve’s mouth was always on him, in some sense. And there was hand-holding, too. Their fingers interlocked above Tony’s head, grip tight and grounding and wonderful. Tony loved Steve’s hands. Definitely loved them even more after tonight.

When he felt Steve’s teeth scrape along his shoulder, run up his neck to clamp down in a bloodless bite right over his jugular, Tony came. He felt like Steve was going to laugh at him for that later, but he didn’t care just then. And neither did Steve, seemingly— he sped up, movements more erratic as he tried desperately to chase the feeling while continuing to suck a messy hickey into Tony’s skin, his hands roaming freely until they settled on Tony’s small waist, hitching him up without even thinking about it. Tony bit his lip, his arms wrapped around Steve’s neck, talking without knowing what he was even saying. He wanted to feel Steve come undone above him. _Because_ of him.

And, a few moments later, with a guttural moan into Tony’s bruised skin, Steve did. He shuddered and pulled Tony impossibly close, enough that it felt like every inch of them was connected, and then he sunk into the bed with a heavy sigh, arms wrapping themselves around Tony’s back. They stayed there for a while. Just catching their breath. Feeling one another. Tony felt like he was somewhere else; like the only thing in the universe was Steve’s embrace, and from the way Steve was holding him, it seemed as if his thoughts were being reflected right back at him.

Steve lifted his head eventually, cold air filling the space he left around Tony’s neck. He stared at the mark he’d sucked into Tony’s skin, his eyes deep and full, before dragging his gaze up to Tony’s face. “Told you you wouldn’t be bad,” he declared, mouth twitching in a smile.

Tony huffed, looking at the ceiling. “Mmm,” was his answer, mentally wondering whether it was considered impolite to log this event in one of his science journals. Steve’s body alone was absolutely fascinating. His eyes turned fucking silver, for Christ’s sake- and Tony was pretty sure he was still hard, even though he’d just come. After an experimental shift and responding intake of breath from his boyfriend, Tony was proved correct. “You can go again,” he mumbled, patting Steve’s shoulder reassuringly, “I’ll jus’… dunno, have a nap. Scientifically log every aspect of your anatomy or somethin’.”

Steve laughed, burying it into Tony’s shoulder before kissing the place where his mouth met the skin. It was an absent motion. Tony liked that. “I’m good,” he said softly, “I’ll go get us something to clean up with. This might feel weird.” With a fluid motion, Steve eased out of Tony and sat up on the bed, sliding off it and heading for the bathroom. Tony lay there amongst the pillows and watched him move in that graceful, haunting way of his. It looked like there was a layer of air between his feet and the floor, like his limbs were suspended in water. It was strange, and it was beautiful. Tony wished he could watch Steve all day. Maybe something could be arranged. Steve didn’t ever have to leave this room, in fact, and they could stay here and keep doing this forever until they died.

Tony wondered whether he was high. Could you get high from really good sex? Or maybe some of that cool Vampire aphrodisiac stuff had leaked into his bloodstream somehow. Steve hadn’t broken the skin when he’d bitten that mark into his neck- hadn’t used his canines, unfortunately, instead just giving him a normal ol’ hickey- but there was definitely going to be a bruise, Tony could tell, so maybe that had been it. Tony didn’t know. He’d have to look it up, he supposed.

Steve ran the faucet for a few seconds and then wandered back through the en suite, his eyes on Tony. He looked… soft. And it was rare, to get him like this. So totally unguarded, naked in every sense of the word. But right now, that was what he was, and he didn’t even seem to care, all loose-limbed and soft-haired and flushed as he smiled across to Tony. “Whadd’ya lookin’ at?”

Tony smiled, half of it hidden into the pillow. “I’m objectifying you, duh.”

Steve just rolled his eyes, walking over to the desk where they’d chucked the ears earlier (too difficult to manoeuvre). He put them back on his head and then leaned against the surface of Tony’s desk. Tony sat up, attempting to wolf-whistle. Due to the fact that he had never wolf-whistled before in his life, however, he gave that up pretty quickly. “A vampire playboy? It’s like all my dreams are coming true at once.”

Steve laughed and averted his gaze, where they then stuck onto something on Tony’s desk. He blinked, and then moved his hand to turn a few papers toward him, while Tony just watched and tried to think of what he’d left out that had caught his attention. Eventually, Steve held the notes up to him, a confused expression on his face. “What’s this?”

Tony looked at it for a second, and then felt his eyes widen. They were the notes Tony had been making while he’d been constructing his website- ideas and future plans, and people that he could speak to. Bruce was on the list. He was at college, currently studying Unhuman psychology. Tony had thought he would be a helpful starter.

He wasn’t sure how to explain any of that to Steve, though. It’d been done in the heat of some very intense emotions, and although Tony thought it was a good idea, he wasn’t sure how Steve was going to react to this. Would he like it? Or would he not want Tony to be fighting his battles like that?

Scrambling off the bed and grabbing the first shirt he could find- Steve’s, it turned out- Tony walked over to him, wringing his hands together. “So,” he started, “I may have started a website concerning bringing awareness to Unhuman life and culture after you’d left earlier. Cool name, I’m calling it Project BADAUSS- Baseline Allyship and Defence Against Unhuman Social Stigma, although I might change the name. Is it too long? I feel like it’s too long. Anyway, it was – It was a spur of the moment thing, but I just… there’s not enough information out there, Steve. We as Baseliners are choosing to be ignorant of shit that affects you every day, and it’s not right, and I want to change that. And not just in a… not just because I’m your boyfriend, but because someone needs to. And I know what I’m doing. I know who to talk to, where to spread the message. I want this to be a useful resource to anyone even remotely curious, and I want it to be the one thing on the internet that isn’t fucking filled with anti-Unhuman rhetoric, and…” Tony trailed off, looking at Steve’s face to try and gauge a reaction from the other man. But he was just getting a vacant stare, like Steve didn’t know what to do with himself.

Unable to go back now, Tony merely pushed on. “It’s in the early stages, obviously,” he said quickly, waving a hand as he leaned over his desk and neatened up his piles of notes, “I’m gonna need to arrange a few interviews, source material, do some plugging and the like, but I think it’s gonna work. I think I could make this at least a somewhat well-known resource, and, I just thought… you know, I have the privilege that comes with being who I am, so I might as well do something with it?” Tony spared a glance at Steve, but got nothing. His spirits were starting to sink a little. “Is this… too much?” He asked tentatively, “Am I overstepping? I don’t want—I just thought I could—”

“I love you,” Steve said, not fast at all, nor blurted. The words were calculated, thought out. Steve wanted to say them. “I love you so, so much.”

Tony blinked at him, feeling Steve’s hand move to cup his cheek. He was shaking his head minutely, looking back and forth between him and the laptop. “You made a website,” he said, something disbelieving in his tone, “We fought, and you made some mistakes, and then you decided to create a whole fucking _website_, with a name, and an agenda, and… God, Tony, who _does_ that? Who else cares that much about us? About _me?” _He laughed quietly, bangs once more falling into his eyes before he leaned down and pressed their mouths together, nothing in it but softness and gratitude. When Steve pulled away, his eyes were shining. “Thank you. I love you. And you don’t have to say it back—”

“I love you too, Steve, Christ,” Tony felt shaky as he said it, endlessly relieved that Steve didn’t seem upset, “you like it then? The idea, I mean?”

Still seeming almost dazed, Steve just nodded. “Yeah, I like the idea. I think… As long as you keep yourself safe, and everyone involved safe, I think it would be good.” He wiped a hand over his face and then chuckled. “You’re something else, Tony Stark.”

Bouncing up and down on his toes, Tony grinned at him, leaning into his chest and kissing him quick while copping a feel, of course, because when Steve was naked Tony was not just going to _stand there._ “Yeah,” he agreed, “and you love me.”

“I do.”

“And that’s great, because I love you too.”

“You do.” Steve looked down at him for a second, tongue running over his bottom lip, until he blinked and then held up the wet cloth, seemingly attempting to come back to himself. “We should clean up.”

“What, does the sight of me in your shirt with your come all over me not do it for you?” Tony smiled at him politely, breaking down into chuckles when Steve just groaned despairingly and wound a hand around Tony’s waist, hoisting him over to the bed.

“Fuck, Tony, you’re gonna kill me.” He planted Tony into the sheets and gripped the washcloth like it was the only thing tethering him to the world. “We’re gonna clean up, and then we’re gonna snuggle, and you’re not going to say things like that for the next few hours.”

“Why not?”

“Because then I’ll have to fuck you again, and I want to go to sleep,” Steve explained, and Tony watched him with a smile on his face that he couldn’t for the life of him turn off. He felt happier than he ever had before in his life. This was insane. Steve _loved_ him. He didn’t think anyone had ever said that to him before. It felt so strange, but in a good way. In the best way.

They messed about for a few more minutes in a way that only the worst kind of cringey couples could do, but Tony didn’t even care. Not one bit. He kissed Steve whenever the opportunity arose, and said ‘I love you’ about seventy times, and never even let go of him for more than a few seconds. By the time they were both ready to fall asleep, Tony was exhausted from the sheer deluge of happiness alone. He was still wearing Steve’s shirt, with Steve forsaking clothes altogether, and the two of them were facing one another, nose to nose in the bed.

Steve smiled at him, and Tony smiled back. Then Steve kissed him, so Tony kissed back too. He tasted like mint toothpaste. “Thank you,” Steve repeated when he broke away, giving Tony that earnest look of his once more, “I… You don’t know how much it means to me that you care so much.”

Tony hummed, shuffling his hand out from between their chests in order to press his fingers against the sharp jut of Steve’s jaw. “I might mess up again,” he whispered, “I’ll try, Steve, I will, but I’m still learning about everything. It might take a while.”

“I know.” Steve nodded once and then tilted his head so that Tony’s fingers slipped over his mouth. He kissed them softly. “And I might get angry at you for stuff that you don’t necessarily mean. I have a lifetime of confrontation with Baseliners under my belt, and bad habits are hard to break. But I’ll try too.”

Tony smiled at him, his eyes drifting shut as the late hour compelled him to sleep. It was nearly two in the morning, by that point—and it seemed Steve noticed as much, because he squeezed his hand on Tony’s hip and dipped down a little lower. “Hey. Happy Halloween so far?”

That made Tony laugh, and he pulled his eyes open in order to look up at Steve. His neck twitched, a little ache springing from the dark hickey on his neck, a wonderful reminder of everything that had happened, and everything that was to come.

“Best one yet,” he responded simply.

**Author's Note:**

> Wow,,,,,,they're really out there being Tender like that huh,,,,,,, fuck
> 
> Comments are always loved and appreciated <3


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